Compass
by DaLadyofSouls
Summary: Donatello gets dragged from his universe into ours where he must adapt to a world that knows too much and too little about him. His only guide a sickly middle-aged dreg of society. How will he cope apart from his brothers, and how will he get home?
1. Lost at Sea

**Disclaimer** : The TMNT belong to someone rich (Nickelodean Entertainment I think, formerly Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird). I only own my plot and any OCs I dream up.

I'm not making any money off this, just practicing my writing to keep my brain active.

While some of the places in our world are real, the characters are ficticious, any resemblance to persons living or dead is pure coincidence unless otherwise stated.

 **Author's Note:** The turtles will be introduced in the next chapter. The prologue is just a bit of background on my OC, to set the scene... Sorry if the build up for this story is a little slow...

I'm writing this on my new tablet, rather than my laptop, so I apologise if the formatting is a bit odd, I'm not use to it yet...

OOO

* * *

 **Prologue - In Our World...**

Cara looked out the grimey window at the freezing rain. It was almost spring, just one more month to go, before the New Zealand countryside burst into bright colour for the year.

Sighing to herself, she eased herself to the edge of her saggy, unmade queensize mattress, that was wedged into the tiny seven foot by fifteen foot tin shed she called home. It had one small filthy bared window above the mattress and a fragile-looking plywood door in one of the long walls.

In addition to the matress, that was suspended on timbers three feet off the floor, there was a laminated MDF scotch chest, a rusted steel office desk, a couple of half-broken chairs and an ornate glass-fronted bookcase. Boxes and cookware were shoved in wherever they could fit, and damp washing hung from the uneven rafters of the shanty.

Outside Cara could hear ex-boyfriend's dog whining to go for a run. Despite the fact that they had broken up three months ago, Cara was still looking after his dog, and she had been fortunate enough that they were still friendly enough that Bill had allowed her to borrow his car from time-to-time. Hauling on her full wet weather overalls and hooded jacket, Cara steeled herself to take the hyperactive pittbull/mastiff cross, and her own young puppy for a walk at the local surf beach.

OOO

Jessie was a brindle and black pitbull/mastiff cross bitch. She had just had puppies recently, and Cara had only recently, finally rehomed them all. She'd kept one of the boy puppies for herself after there had been some prowlers in the area.

Cola had a dark brown/black coat that matched the fizzy drink he'd been named after, and a personality that reminded her of cola drinks, bubbly initially, then flat and tired after an hour or so. He had rolls of chubby skin and an almost rugby ball shape.

OOO

Getting Cola and Jessie in the car was easy enough, but getting Jessie to stay still, and not distract Cara from driving was always an issue. Still, she managed to drive the six kilometres to Glinks Gully without crashing. Cara hated dog-sitting, but the offer of use of the car was too temping to turn down, even if it meant putting up with Jessie and her destructiveness.

The driving rain, which had almost turned to sleet, had ensured that even the hardcore surfers and surfcasters were not on the beach today. Cara had made sure to put extra dog towels in the boot of the car, so that she could get the dogs dry again after their run in the rain.

Grumbling to herself, Cara got out near an odd looking rock on the beach and let the dogs out. Cola looked at her like she was mad, so Cara let him stay in the warm car, while Jessie dived out of the vehicle was glee, promptly racing up and down the beach before going to inspect the large rock, which was at the water's edge.

Cara pulled her neckwarmer up over her face so that only her eyes were visible, before grabbing her drivering glasses to keep the rain out of her eyes. Thus equpped, she followed Jessie to the stange looking rock.

* * *

OOO

 **New Zealand Terms:**

Boot = Trunk.

Surfcasters = crazy people who fish off the surf beaches, usually with electric long lines.

Glinks Gully = A surf beach that is part of Ripiro beach in the Kaipara district of New Zealand. It is highly sought after by geniune surfers, but awkward access means its not as popular with the masses. Its on the West Coast of the North Island.

Rugby ball = a ball similar to an american football.

1 mile is 1.6 kilometres.

A/N: Don't take puppies out in foul weather, it will ensure an uncomfortable conversation with the SPCA! I personally would never subject any animal to any weather I would not like to be in myself.


	2. Found

**Disclaimer:** See chapter one for full disclaimer, nope still don't own them.

* * *

OOO

As Cara neared, she realised that she was looking at a huge backpack, attached to a pair of brown corduroy covered legs. Quickly she raced over, pushing Jessie out of the way while she tried to get his head above water.

Cara's mind was reeling, as she quickly recognised the seven foot tall terrapin from the recent movie "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Out of the Shadows".

Ever since the cartoon series in the late 1980's she had been an avid fan, though only recently involving herself in the fanfiction community after reconnecting with the recent movie reboot of her favourite childhood cartoon. She dreaded what he would say when he found out about her hobby.

The massive techpack, and the sodden purple mask identified him as Donatello. Cara quickly dragged him higher up the beach, before frantically making sure he was breathing. Grateful that she didn't have to perform CPR, she quicky grabbed the car, and brought it as close as she dared to where Donatello was.

Cola looked curious, as his mistress dragged the now techpackless turtle into the worn and slightly rusty small green hatchback. Wincing from pulling a muscle or five manhandling the enormous turtle into the front passenger seat of the car, Cara dragged Donatello's pack in the back section of the car, after draining out the worst of the water. She had already folded the seats down because of the dogs, so the dogs now had to share the space with a pack that was bigger than they were.

After locating his bo staff, she quickly checked to make sure she had left no evidence of the turtle's arrival, before checking him over for injuries. He was badly bruised, and obviously unconscious, but didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere.

Cara placed the towels over the turtle and tucked one of Bill's old hats over his head. His equipment she covered with an old blanket Bill kept for his dogs. Once she was certain that he was thoughly covered, she hauled a reluctant Jessie into the back, and drove to town to pick up supplies.

OOO

Dargaville was a small rural service town, with a sub-tropical climate. It's main crops were kumara, a type of sweet potato, and pine forestry.

The area also had a darker crop, supplying wacky bacy both domestically and internationally. As a result of the bacy crops, various gangs quietly fought for control of the town on a regular basis. They were surprisingly discreet, so they rarely made headlines, but Cara had lived there long enough to know how to keep a low profile and avoid danger.

She parked close to the river, well away from other vehicles, hoping that Jessie's presence would deter nosy onlookers, before slipping into the Countdown supermarket to grab extra groceries for her visitor.

She'd written him a note, telling him to stay put, and that he was safe, telling him that his gear was in the back and that she would be back with poptarts and other supplies soon.

OOO

"Kia ora Cara, what brings you here today? I thought you got your groceries on Wenerei?" Hinemoa, the checkout assistant asked.

"I forgot a couple of things, and then decided I wanted to make some other things, so here I am, getting ingredients." Cara replied, trying to stay calm.

Hinemoa was a local Maori girl from the Ngati Whatua tribe. Bright and bubbly, the teenager was also insatiably nosy. Her family were Renaissance Maori, and very staunch in their beliefs, but unfortunately many of her family members were also involved in the local gang scene. Hinemoa stayed out of the conflicts, working long hours at the supermarket as she saved up to go to university, while still studying at the local secondary school.

"Kapai, bring me a slice of whatever you're making!" Hinemoa cheekily teased, as she handed Cara her till receipt.

"I can't make any promises on that, my Invalids Benefit doesn't usually allow for much by way of leftovers", Cara shook her head as she picked up her bags and left.

"Kakite ano!" Hinemoa called cheerfully, before turning her attention to the next customer.

It was quite a walk back to the car, but she had felt safer leaving Donatello in the less used public carpark by the river, than using the supermarket carpark, where the car might have been recognised by Bill's drinking buddies or other locals.

Normally Cara was indifferent to the locals, and their incessantly nosy behaviour. Her life was boring, with going to church on Sunday, or doing the weekly grocery shop on Wednesday, being the highlight of her week. Gossip was considered the local pastime in this town, with a grapevine stretching from Pouto to Tangiteroria, and beyond.

Her visitor, straight out of a movie/cartoon universe would attact far too much attention, and it would probably result in Donatello being subjected to detainment by authorities, and probable disection or experimentation. Cara didn't want him to be harmed.

The TMNT had been an important part of Cara's childhood, while cheesy, they had lead her to the study of ninjutsu. while Cara knew very little Taijutsu, the other aspects of the art which she had taught herself from books, had saved her from danger numerous times. It had also been instrumental in her mental recovery from C-PTSD.

OOO

Once back at the car, she noted that her passenger had moved from the way the towels now sat. Saying nothing, she quickly got in the drivers side, and drove towards home.

"How are you feeling?", Cara asked gently, once they were outside the town's limits.

"How did you know I was awake?" Donatello asked sheepishly.

"I layered the towels differently when I covered you at the beach. I hope my note made sense, this is the weirdest thing thats happened to me in my forty years of life!" Cara glanced at her passenger, before turning carefully into her road.

Donatello nodded absently, as he watched the countyside go by.

The rain had abated somewhat since they had left Dargaville, but the wind was roaring over the river plains like a cat-o-nine-tails. Freisian cows huddled here and there, trying to minimise exposure to the weather, while sheep lay down as close to the ground as they could get.

OOO

Donatello's bespectacled eyes took in the shabby clutter of Cara's home as she pulled into the weedstrewn limestone and gravel driveway. There was a broken down front fence, and numerous lengths of secondhand timber stacked against the side fences of the narrow strip of land Cara called home. There was a vacant lot next to her on the west side, and a large modern home on the eastern, riverside.

Most of the houses in her little settlement were rundown, but here and there, were flash new homes, built by retired Aucklanders, selling up their shabby suburban Auckland homes at million dollar prices, and buying up land here for less than a fifty thousand dollars and putting on half-million dollar houses, allowing them to live off the interest of the remainder.

"Please stay in the car for now, as I need to find something to disguise you with. My neighbours are nosy to a fault, and I fear for your safety if the authorities get involved", Cara gave Donatello an apologetic look, as she found the correct key for her home's padlock.

Donatello looked grateful for the concern, and huddled further into the seat.

OOO

Cara quickly found a spare hoodie which she thought ought to fit. Cara was morbidly obese by doctor's standards. Standing at only 5'9" tall, she weighed in at 130kgs with an empty stomach. She preferred loose clothing, so her black hoodie was ample to fit around Donatello's shell.

Once she got back to the car, she used her ample body to shield Donatello from the neighbours kitchen window while he slipped into the basic mens hoodie, before Cara offered her polarfleece neckwarmer to conceal his lower face and neck. Finally disguised, she quickly helped him stumble gingerly into her shanty.

"Sorry its not much, I'm getting a larger port-a-cabin soon, but its not due for a couple of weeks. You can take the bed, theres enough space under the bed for me to sleep with a bedroll and my sleeping bag," Cara told Donatello as she helped him to one of the chairs.

Despite the scant space, she quickly stripped her bed and remade it for him with clean sheets. She took the sheets outside, and then set a large stockpot of hot water to boil over the gas BBQ. Gathering her washtub and the necessary supplies, she quickly set up washing facilities within the shanty so that Donatello could finally wash off the seawater and sand from his arrival.

"Um...thanks" mumbled the overwhelmed young mutant, as she handed him a clean towel and some clean clothes. It was fortunate for Donnatello that Cara normally preferred mens trackpants and hoodies for daily wear, leaving her more feminine clothes for Sunday or rare trips to the city

"No worries, I'd like to think that if I was ever stranded from home, someone would take care of me until I found my way home. Just knock three times on the door when you're done and I'll help you into bed if you need me to. I'll make us some dinner once you're tucked in bed, so I have more room to move." Cara straightened her beanie, as she left to settle the dogs back in their kennel, and empty her chemical toilet.

OOO

Just as she returned from emptying her toilet, her next-door neighbours came over. This happened most days as Cara lived alone, and the neighbours considered it their duty to check up on her daily.

"Hows it going Cara?" Joel West asked, as his wife Jody looked over Bill's car with interest.

"Whats under the blanket?" Jody West asked.

"I'm fine, and just some supplies, I went back into Dargaville to pick up some extras." Cara replied, eager to get rid of them. "Sorry I can't stay and chat, but I've just started dinner."

With that, Cara quickly put the toilet cassette back in the chemical toilet in the privy, before washing her hands thoroughly. Happily, the neighbours had gone home by the time Donatello had finished his abolutions, so once Cara had emptied the washtub, she was able to start dinner.

"Is there anything you don't eat?" Cara asked, as she looked at the pantry contents in her bookcase.

"I don't like fish all that much, but otherwise I eat most things. We usually live on a diet of ramen and pizza at home, veggies optional. My mutation means I have a wider food tolerance than both my seperate species would naturally have. That, and eating my brother Mikey's early cooking attempts gave me a cast-iron stomach!" Donatello smirked from his possie in her nest of blankets. "My favourite foods are poptarts and tiramisu, you can say I have a bit of a sweet tooth."

"I love poptarts, but I recently had to go dairy-free due to a mild dairy intolerance, so I risk anything from mild cramps to diarrhea if I eat dairy. I only eat the fruit poptarts now, which have minimal dairy products in them. I'm willing to endure the cramps once in a while, just for them." Cara owned up to her own poptart addiction. "Would sweet and sour chicken, and ricebubble crackle for dessert be ok?"

"Sounds great! what's ricebubble crackle? Oh, and you can call me Donnie or Don." Donnie enthused as he snagged her cookbook from the overhead shelf.

Donnie quickly found the recipe and his eyes began to sparkle as he read.

'Just perfect', he thought, 'I wonder if she makes stuff like this often? Ohh this looks delicious, I wonder how you could make it without milk or butter?"

Donnie was so engrossed with the recipe book that he startled when Cara touched his calf to get his attention. "Dinner is served! I hope you're not offended if I say grace before we eat?"

"Not at all, I've always wondered about Christians. I've only ever seen them on television."

"Well I'm only a moderate Christian, and post-denominational at that, but I believe Jesus is real, even if I can't always live up to the churches ideals." Cara then bowed her head in prayer, "Heavenly Father, please bless the food we are about to eat, we thank you that Donnie is safe, and we ask for your continued blessing of safety over him. Please protect us both from those who would wish us harm or exploitation, Amen."

"Amen", Donnie murmured respectfully, before happily tucking into his meal.

As they ate, Cara told him about the TMNT movies and cartoons. It amused Donatello that the comics and cartoons had come out before he was even born. He told her his story and they laughed about the errors in cartoon and various movie 'cannon'. Cara dragged out her ancient laptop and the DVD of the 2014 movie, which Donnie watched while Cara made the ricebubble crackle.

OOO

Her 12-volt batteries were all flat by the time Donnie had gotten to the Elevator scene, so Cara got out the kerosene latern, and Donnie happily tinkered with the laptop while he munched on ricebubble crackle. Cara went outside to boil more water to do the dishes, before doing them, and boiling yet more water so she could attend her own abolutions before bed.

Once she got back inside the shanty, she made her own bed on the floor under her queen bed, before letting Donnie know that she had to turn out the light. "Sorry Don, but I can't afford to run the lantern all night, I don't get paid again until Wednesday, so if it runs out we'll be in the dark for the next five days until payday."

"Sorry, I can finish servicing the laptop in the morning if that's okay with you?" Donnie seemed embarrassed.

"That's fine Don, I rarely use the laptop now as it chews through the electricity so fast, and I only have two batteries. I have a new tablet computer that is much more efficient, AND it has broadband!" Cara told him with a grin. "If you promise not to use all my data, you can use it tommorrow. Sweet dreams."

As they both settled down to sleep Donnie, tried to figure out why he had been swept into the alternate reality.

To be continued...

OOO

* * *

 **New Zealand terms:**

Renaissance Maori = A person of Maori heritage who wants to immerse themselves in Maori culture. Sometimes an object of scorn by other New Zealanders, for their notably racist views against non-maori and their cultural snobbery.

Countdown = One of the major supermarket chains in New Zealand. Tends to be marketed towards the middle-classes.

Kia ora = hello

Wenerei = Wednesday

Kapai = good

Kakite ano = Goodbye

Pouto to Tangiteroria = the west coast of the Kaipara district

privy = outhouse lavatory

possie = position

One of the biggest culture shocks I discovered when I moved to the Kaipara district was the almost insatiable curiosity of the locals. Its not unusual for neighbours to visit weekly, if not daily, wanting to know your business. Cara has her work cut out for her if she wants to keep Donatello a secret.

* * *

 **A/N:** Taijutsu is the unarmed combat used by the ninja. It can be taught seperately from ninjutsu.


End file.
